Picked up this Phillips roadster a while back thinkin it would make a great school commuter and grocery getter! It is all that and more, what a pleasure!
So, from rusty antique to rusty daily rider; never underestimate the power of patina!
As usual Seat, tyres, tubes, cables, chain and grips, but in this case because of a pronounced absence of braking force new calipers were in order, add some Avid levers and we were off to the races! Oh 3 speed Dyno Hub rear; I'll need a light. Can't forget the rack and collapsable basket. So the parts list thus far looks sum'm like this:
Bike (used $100)
Brooks B17 Saddle (used $25)
Specialized TriSport FlackJacket Tyres ('n' tubes) (new $50)
Ame Grips (new $10)
Avid V-brake levers (used $10)
Tektro dual pivot calipers (new $50)
KMC Kool Chain (new $20)
Dyno light (new $10)
Rack (free, already had it)
basket (used $10)
and Cables ($10)
But wait, where'd the saddle come from? A Brooks for $25? Well, I'm always looking in the used parts bins so when I came across a (lime green, mind you) used set of magura hydro' rimbrakes for $25 I knew my buddy Steve would be glad to reimburse me for those. When I delivered said brakes to said Steve and collected said dough, I then noticed a B17 on the floor to which I replied assertively, "your not gonna be needing that B17!", to which he replied "give me my $25 back!" and so it was!
After lube and maintenance It's a rider.
The "wedgepin" British cranks were short and bent and as much as I wanted to keep that beautiful sprocket i could take no more. I threw a used square drive spindle and a set of sugino 175mm road cranks on her. I had just bought a set of black on gunmetal Avids that I liked better and I couldn't leave good enough alone so it was time to go through the steerer. I had some Electra moustache bars and a neck that I bought an adapter for and mounted all of that stuff.
Man that little bit of rust on the rear rim face sure does shred through brake pads! Went to one of the many residential boneyards and picked me up some "late model" (1970) SA wheels w/ perfect chrome on'em, dug into the spoke collection for some SS action and had those snipped and new threads forged. I swapped out the "Essex" front hub for a Deore when I laced up the front.
My 1st ride in the rain was quite the eye opener as I had completely forgotten about steel rims w/ modern pads (i.e. they don't work in the rain!). Back at the shop I asked if they had pads w/ compound for steel and got the bloddy blodda and the yodda yodda about how thats why they use aluminum now.... and that's the problem with steel.... (mind you this isn't a pretentious shop, it's just that he didn't know who he was pat. responding to), and even though I assured him that you (he) can order them w/ the proper compound he seemed reluctant to acquiesce. So I walked over to the used brake bin and pulled out (w/in a couple min's 2 complete good cond. sets, one summer, one winter of old brake pads w/ soft compound for steel rims removed them by hand (what a dude!) and asked "oh, you mean these? how much you want for'em?"; I think he maybe realized his error, maybe, I was happy to pay $.10 each for them none the less!
The tally thus far:
Avid levers ($18 [these]-$10 [those]= +$8)
Bars and neck (free, had'em too long to know)
Generic black aluminum seatpost ($10 used)
Sugino Cranks ($10 used)
Pedals and toeclips ($6 used)
Brake pads (used $.80)
Spokes cut ($10)
Deore hub (used $5)
What a dream, I think I'm at around $350 total and it's light, fast, and outa sight!
(Seen here w/ old levers)
019 by RainCityRacer, on Flickr
018 by RainCityRacer, on Flickr
017 by RainCityRacer, on Flickr
Cheers!
So, from rusty antique to rusty daily rider; never underestimate the power of patina!
As usual Seat, tyres, tubes, cables, chain and grips, but in this case because of a pronounced absence of braking force new calipers were in order, add some Avid levers and we were off to the races! Oh 3 speed Dyno Hub rear; I'll need a light. Can't forget the rack and collapsable basket. So the parts list thus far looks sum'm like this:
Bike (used $100)
Brooks B17 Saddle (used $25)
Specialized TriSport FlackJacket Tyres ('n' tubes) (new $50)
Ame Grips (new $10)
Avid V-brake levers (used $10)
Tektro dual pivot calipers (new $50)
KMC Kool Chain (new $20)
Dyno light (new $10)
Rack (free, already had it)
basket (used $10)
and Cables ($10)
But wait, where'd the saddle come from? A Brooks for $25? Well, I'm always looking in the used parts bins so when I came across a (lime green, mind you) used set of magura hydro' rimbrakes for $25 I knew my buddy Steve would be glad to reimburse me for those. When I delivered said brakes to said Steve and collected said dough, I then noticed a B17 on the floor to which I replied assertively, "your not gonna be needing that B17!", to which he replied "give me my $25 back!" and so it was!
After lube and maintenance It's a rider.
The "wedgepin" British cranks were short and bent and as much as I wanted to keep that beautiful sprocket i could take no more. I threw a used square drive spindle and a set of sugino 175mm road cranks on her. I had just bought a set of black on gunmetal Avids that I liked better and I couldn't leave good enough alone so it was time to go through the steerer. I had some Electra moustache bars and a neck that I bought an adapter for and mounted all of that stuff.
Man that little bit of rust on the rear rim face sure does shred through brake pads! Went to one of the many residential boneyards and picked me up some "late model" (1970) SA wheels w/ perfect chrome on'em, dug into the spoke collection for some SS action and had those snipped and new threads forged. I swapped out the "Essex" front hub for a Deore when I laced up the front.
My 1st ride in the rain was quite the eye opener as I had completely forgotten about steel rims w/ modern pads (i.e. they don't work in the rain!). Back at the shop I asked if they had pads w/ compound for steel and got the bloddy blodda and the yodda yodda about how thats why they use aluminum now.... and that's the problem with steel.... (mind you this isn't a pretentious shop, it's just that he didn't know who he was pat. responding to), and even though I assured him that you (he) can order them w/ the proper compound he seemed reluctant to acquiesce. So I walked over to the used brake bin and pulled out (w/in a couple min's 2 complete good cond. sets, one summer, one winter of old brake pads w/ soft compound for steel rims removed them by hand (what a dude!) and asked "oh, you mean these? how much you want for'em?"; I think he maybe realized his error, maybe, I was happy to pay $.10 each for them none the less!
The tally thus far:
Avid levers ($18 [these]-$10 [those]= +$8)
Bars and neck (free, had'em too long to know)
Generic black aluminum seatpost ($10 used)
Sugino Cranks ($10 used)
Pedals and toeclips ($6 used)
Brake pads (used $.80)
Spokes cut ($10)
Deore hub (used $5)
What a dream, I think I'm at around $350 total and it's light, fast, and outa sight!
(Seen here w/ old levers)
019 by RainCityRacer, on Flickr
018 by RainCityRacer, on Flickr
017 by RainCityRacer, on Flickr
Cheers!
